


What Remains

by Redrikki



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Darth Vader (Comics)
Genre: Corpse in a box, Gen, Padme's Ghost, Skeletons In The Closet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-29 22:39:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11450532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki
Summary: What remains of a relationship built on lies? Nothing, as Darth Sidious will soon find out.





	What Remains

**Author's Note:**

> Written both for the [hurt-comfort bingo](http://hc-bingo.dreamwidth.org/145157.html?thread=945669#cmt945669) prompt "Skeletons in the closet" and a wacky prompt on tumblr about Padmé's preserved corpse.

Vader knelt to greet his master, unnerved by his presence here. Lord Sidious had not visited Vader in the castle on Mustafar since he had inflicted it upon him. That he had chosen to come here now did not bode well. Vader silently curse Aphra and himself for having trusted her. How much did his master know? How many of Vader’s secrets had that treacherous woman told him? He might have prayed to the gods of his childhood that the boy remained safe, but the gods of the desert where no kinder than his master. 

Sidious gestured for him to rise. “My boy,” he said, laying a fatherly hand across Vader’s back as though he were here for a pleasant chat and not to put him in his place. Vader’s pulse would have quickened if it could. “I know things have been strained between us of late and, for that, I blame myself. I’ve been neglecting you. I thought a nice gift might help to remind you of our bond after all that unpleasantness with Dr. Cylo.”

He snapped his fingers and a quartet of troopers brought in a long box draped in black cloth. They shut off the anti-grav and lowered it gently to the floor. Vader approached with caution. What evidence of his disloyalty had his master dredged up? What horror had he produced to remind Vader of his helplessness? He reached for the cloth, but hesitated. _Please, don’t be the boy. Anything but him._

“Do it,” his master commanded and Vader ripped off the cloth.

It was Padmé. Thanks to the magic of Commodex Tahn and the hermetically sealed coffin, she looked just as beautiful as when he had seen her last. No, more so. There was no desperation or fear on her face, just quiet repose. Her hair was loose and strewn with flowers. Her blue gown flowed like water over the swell of her pregnancy. For years, Vader had believed he had killed them both, but now he knew the truth. Now he knew and the sight of Padmé’s beautiful face was blotted out by sheer blinding rage.

Vader could not speak. He could not think. All he could do was stand and let the machines breath for him as his hands slowly curled into fists. His master had lied to him, over and over and over. He had lied to Anakin about their friendship. He had lied about his ability to save Padmé. And worst of all, he had lied to Vader about what had become of his wife and child. The bond the old man sought to repair was a false one and Vader would be held by it no longer.

“Well, aren’t you going to thank me?”

Vader sank back to his knees, his hand still resting on his wife’s coffin. “Thank you, Master, for reminding me of the loyalty I owe you,” he said. He would find Padmé’s son and together they would give her the galaxy she deserved. One without Darth Sidious.


End file.
